RE: Market news22 Mar 2025 13:54
The feasible extractable resource is about 6.1 million ton, and with present technology, about 676,000 ton scandium appear as potentially extractable. The potential for scandium extraction is about 1500 ton/year at present, but only about 45 ton per year (!!!) was pro-duced in 2022. With improved extraction and access yields, production could be increased to about 450 ton per year, and the scandium resource would increase to about 1.5 million ton.
In the future, demand for metallic scandium will increase, but it will be limited by high prices, the lack of a properly functioning market and production infrastructure.
-global scandium market development has been mostly determined by supply, precisely, by supply shortage because production is very small and expensive and there have been no primary scandium producers globally.
-by now, scandium primary application area has been the production of solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC) and high-intensity lamps, production of aluminium alloys for lightweight aircraft and automobiles is of the highest potential.
-scandium is supplied today either as a co-product of other primary metal production or is reprocessed out of old tailings from exhausted mining opeations; global exploration and development projects continue in anticipation of expectedly increased demand of scandium.
-the aircraft industry and the automotive sector are anticipated to expand to a much wider range of scandium applications in the years to come.